The Poke
by Skeren Dreamera
Summary: Sasuke doesn't remember how it started, this habit Itachi had of poking him in the head, but Itachi does, and he still thinks it was a wonderful discovery.


**The Poke**

Sasuke was nearly two years old the first time it had happened, and it had, honestly, surprised them both.

The day had been overly warm, enough so that the toddler had been irritable. Unfortunately, that irritability was in his hands, as their mother wasn't home, and their father was at the station. He could have escaped to his team, yes, but with them missing a genin, the options had been either dealing with a bored Iruka or tending to the toddler and giving their mother a day of peace.

He'd chosen the toddler. Even he only had so much patience, and dealing with his older teammate was nearly enough to make him want to rip out his hair.

Still, he had not accounted for the balmy heat making the younger child fret and fuss, and he was unprepared to deal with the mounting tantrum that seemed to be on the horizon. Usually, their mother managed to soothe the boy before he got anywhere near this agitated, and the iced treat he'd attempted to use as a bribe to settle the child had failed miserably.

All of that, sadly, had not led to The Discovery. No, it had instead led to a screaming tantrum during which nothing would placate his sweet-baby-brother-turned-demon. He'd tried food, he'd tried cuddling, which, by the way, was a horrible _terrible_ mistake, and he'd tried just sticking him in front of the open freezer in hopes the cool air would do what nothing else seemed to be able to do and calm the screaming beast.

Sadly, none of these efforts were successful. If anything, the jostling and such seemed to rile the boy's temper even higher. Thus, it was understandable that when Sasuke finally stopped, Itachi was left floundering. After all, he'd finally given up on any attempts to soothe the boy, and was perched well across the kitchen on a counter where he wouldn't have the urge to poke at the smaller child, when his sibling had tipped over and gone to sleep, just like that.

It was nearly enough to make even an seven year old as self possessed as Itachi was want to cry. Still, he contained himself, instead collecting a light blanket to flip over the child after closing the freezer. He refused to even consider waking the child at this point, after all. Even if he really, _really_ wanted to move the boy somewhere not the floor.

Ultimately, practicality won out over comfort in the genin's mind, and he'd left the toddler where he was, quiet and relaxed on the wooden floor as though he hadn't been pitching a fit a few minutes before. Still, that gave him time to make a proper lunch for them both, and it seemed that the nap had been enough to quell his brother for a while, because when he finally stirred he was back to his normal sweet disposition.

He suspected strongly it had to do with the freezer, and he decided he'd given up on that particular attempt much too early.

In any case, he'd been given enough time to tend to a few things that needed tending, and Sasuke even seemed eager enough when it came time to eat. At first. Itachi hadn't forgotten the boy was teething. He had, however, forgotten that the boy was utterly and entirely unwilling to eat anything that wasn't a tomato without a great deal of negotiation first.

_That_ was when it had happened. The Discovery. Seeing that Sasuke was about to launch into an entirely new fit with completely different reasons behind it, he'd panicked, reaching out and jabbing his sibling in the head in what he'd _thought_ would be an utterly futile attempt to startle him out of his fussing.

But it wasn't futile. In fact, Sasuke had stared up at him with wide, surprised eyes, and hadn't even tried to proceed toward the tantrum he'd been heading into. No, instead he'd leaned back, looking decidedly stunned, and made a rather impressive face of disgruntled confusion at him. When he had then pushed the food toward the smaller boy and received no tantrum, he'd decided it had been a success. When the boy ate without even a further complaint, he'd decided that The Discovery was the best thing ever.

It was a reset button. The ultimate reset button. After that, The Discovery became The Poke, and he used it every time it seemed like Sasuke was building up steam into anything he either didn't want to deal with, or couldn't afford to. Of course, there were always those times he did it just because it would make his brother lose his train of thought, or because he would make a funny face too, so Sasuke never caught on, but ultimately, it became their thing.

He held dearly to that ritual in the years after he'd left Konoha. He held onto it to the very last day he'd seen his brother, and he was glad.

Even if the discovery had been a fluke, Sasuke still understood everything he didn't say when he did it.

'I love you and you exasperate me, but I'm here for you anyway.'

And just like the very first time he did it, the last time was much the same, with Sasuke making a cute, confused expression of shock before any other reaction.

Hmph, and he'd picked fussy Sasuke over his annoying teammate that morning too.

Funny how things work out sometimes.


End file.
